Innovationszentrum

innovation center

The Innovation Center is a research and development department at Yokogawa. It is primarily responsible for innovation activities related to an uncertain and unpredictable future for which new business opportunities need to be found.
The Innovation Center was established as a research and development department in 1971 and has been the site of all Yokogawa's R&D activities ever since. Over the years it has had a wide variety of names, whether "Central Research Laboratory", "Center for Technology Development" or "Central Office for Research and Development". In 2012, the company finally changed the name to "Center for Innovation" to make it clear that not only basic research is carried out there, but that innovations for entrepreneurial business transactions are also being worked on. In 2015, the Marketing Department took the helm to strengthen both the go-to-market strategy and other strategies, and eventually renamed the business unit “Innovation Center”. Since then, business-related research has not only been carried out there as usual. Basic research with a view to future possibilities also continues to play an important role.

Task of the innovation center

The role of the Innovation Center is to contribute to the creation of value for customers by involving multiple organizations, both internal and external, including customers, in the innovation process (co-creation, co-innovation).

Three Operational Strategies of the Innovation Center – Technology Planning for a Possible Future –

1. Development of innovation scenarios through joint creation and transfer of these scenarios to research and development activities
2. Linking of research and development activities with the company's internal incubators and acquisition of the required technologies
3. Elaboration of a structure that enables continuous research and development and continuous acquisition of technologies and building of human capital

Areas of activity and research topics of the innovation center

In order to gain a glimpse of the future, Yokogawa has prepared a future scenario using scenario planning that considers shortages of food, energy and water to be very likely in the near future. Based on this insight, the main areas of activity of the innovation center were defined as biology, energy and materials. These three areas are also referred to as the business focus areas in the context of Yokogawa's long-term corporate policy framework. The figure below lists the main research and development topics for each area.

 

Areas of activity and research topics of the innovation center